Vladimir Kagan's Blog

A summer's oddesy continued

Just an Ordinary Summer on Nantucket

part 2

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, September 27, 2014

 

CRUISING THE BEACH

 

Nantucket is a small town with a huge moat around it! The nearest land is 30 miles to the North – and 3,000 miles to the East…too far for a drawbridge! Being surrounded by water translates into heavenly beaches. Depending how the wind blows, you can always find one that is sheltered or full of waves. Go to the South shore and it is inundated with robust boys and girls – men and women… dedicated to surfing the waves… plus the “camp followers” who just sit and enjoy the sight.

 I go to Coatue, a scraggy peninsula made up of five isolated sandy coves inhabited by gulls and the occasional family of sunbathers… it is pristine and only accessible by boat (or a grueling hour-long drive on the beach)….

 

On the Nantucket Sound side of Coatue, things are a little different. Five miles along a gracious curve of land stands Great Point Light House, warning mariners of the deadly shoal to the north and east…and the greatest fishing grounds of our island… It is also home to hundreds of unwanted harbor seals.

 

The beach offers great views of sailboats, regattas, ferries, fishing boats and luxury yachts gliding in and out of the harbor. Not long ago, we spotted a behemoth of a yacht serenely swinging on its anchor in the outer bay, too big to enter the inner harbor through the shallow, narrow channel.. This had to be a big one!… It was one that had to be investigated. In Nantucket we are used to millionaire’s boats and 150 feet doesn’t even deserve a turn of the head. This one was a 332-foot long ocean cruising yacht. On a gentle day, we ventured out of the harbor in our little 13’ Whaler to explore this marvel. The boat’s statistics were dazzling: She was originally built by a Taiwanese shipping magnet, who named her “Evergreen”. When Dennis Washington, a Montana billionaire bought her, he gutted the ship and rebuilt it from the hull up in a Vancouver shipyard.  Several feet were added to her width, she now has an owner’s master suite of more than five thousand square feet, two guest staterooms, and twin cabins for the grandchildren. The interior belies her sleek modern exterior… Furnished with plush furniture, chandeliers, and over-the-top decorations befitting a grandiose Riviera hotel. For your comfort, she has twenty-five in crew! – Should you want to charter her, look her up on the Internet: Her new name is: Attessa IV

The super yacht,  Attessa IV, too large to enter Nantucket Harbor, rides majestically at anchor a mile off shore

 

ON THE WATER

 

That's me racing my indian in fairly challenging seas

 

Sailing with my friend Ian MacKenzie on his Indian

I still manage to pour myself onto my sailboat… albeit with some difficulty… it’s a ginger-balancing act… On decent days I race with my son Illya, We are no longer among the fleet’s hotshots… but we are never DFL (Dead F---g Last).  The weather has not always been cooperative with heavy winds and thunderstorms that have forced us to abort some races. However, It is on these blustery days that I finally find a little time to write this Blog!

 

 A few weeks ago, after returning from our race, ruminating about the day’s tactics and mistakes, sipping dark & stormies on the yacht club’s porch, there appeared a black cloud of acrid smoke over the harbor. My friend Chuck and I took one look and guessed a fire at sea. We jumped into my Whaler to investigate. A 32-foot powerboat was engulfed in flames and the burning Fiberglas was spewing toxic plumes into the air. We were virtually the first spectators on the scene and stayed until the Coast Guard finally extinguished the fire…no one was hurt… just a typical day on the water.

   

No one hurt, but a messy, stinking fire

Returning from the fire, we passed my friend, Michael's 150 foot glamorous yacht - the largest boat in the harbor... no one even stopped to admire it... it was only half the size of Attessa IV

 

BIRDS AND HELICOPTERS

My house is in the flight-path of the Medi-vac helicopter to our local hospital.  (We are fortunate that our hospital is affiliated with Boston’s Mass General Hospital, one of the finest facilities of its kind in the world.)

There are often three or more of these flights daily…

As you may remember from a previous Blog how much I admire birds… I also love airplanes. So I thought it would be exciting to watch one of these giant birds landing… Little did I foresee that my granddaughter Olivia would become a “passenger” on one of these flights, several weeks later! 

 

These "birds" fly noisily over my house day and night

Nantucket is the epicenter for Lyme disease, a devastating infection transmitted by the tiny deer tick. Deer ticks are smaller than a pinhead and very difficult to detect on your body. If you live on Nantucket, sooner or later, you will find one imbedded on your skin. Several days later, there usually appears a telltale ring of red around the bite, but there is no guarantee that this ring will ever appear. Obviously for Olivia there was no sign. Olivia was diagnosed with one of its deadliest symptoms. Lyme Carditis, which attacks the heart and causes extreme arrhythmia. When not properly diagnosed, it can be fatal. Fortunately Dr. Timothy Lepore*, one of the country’s leading authorities on Lyme, was supervising the hospital’s emergency room that night and called the shots right. Within forty-five minutes of leaving Nantucket that night, Olivia was hooked up to Mass General’s electronics… Six days later she was back on Island, happy as a clam…(thought she required an Intravenous stint direct to her heart in order to administer daily medication for a month.) Today, she is fully recovered and enjoying her semester abroad in Edinburg Scotland.

 Olivia (center) enjoying October Fest in Munich

*An endearing book was written about Dr. Lepore: ISLAND PRACTICE by Pam Belluck of the New York Times

 

 

PARADISE FOUND ON NANTUCKET 

The path to the hidden pond in my back-yard garden

My garden is my secret haven. It is a jungle; not your typical flower garden. Though I live in town, my “back yard” is serenely private. Sitting by my pond the Koi fish lazily swim around an island, ducking under water lily pads. They anticipate my arrival by the sound of my footsteps and are most eager to be fed. A willow tree protects them from the ever-prowling eyes of osprey and herons. There is a little waterfall flowing down a hillside, it looks so authentic that many of my guests were surprised that there is a running streams on Nantucket (of course there isn’t)…

 

I should meditate here daily… I don’t

My Buddha prayer house, brought back from Thailand many years ago

I am visited by hundreds of twittering birds to keep me entertained… birdbaths and feeders keep them happily in my garden. On rare occasions, they sadly also become a picnic ground for preying hawks… the gruesome telltale of their visit is a cluster of small feathers in the grass. I am saddened by this sight, but nature takes its own, sometimes-cruel course.

 

Visiting friends from Switzerland, Professor Charles Jefford and his charming wife Susan



The final Instalment with follow soon... Parties on Nantucket - Vladi as Chef d'cuisine - Illya Kagan's annual art show and finally me at work in Nantucket! Believe it or not, I also work there! 

 

Just An Ordinary Summer On Nantucket

In three installments

Part 1

Copyright Vladimir Kagan, September 19, 2014

A panoramic view of Nantucket harbor taken from the Whaling Museum roof

 

 

The countdown to the end of summer starts on the July 4th and comes to an official end at Labor Day… but in reality it lingers deep into September, when we have some of the finest weather with un-crowded beaches, streets and restaurants.

 

Here’s a sampling of my “ho-hum” summer

 

INDEPENDENCE DAY

This year the fourth started with a bang. The traditional Fireworks display was usurped by a full-fledged hurricane – Arthur! (The only one that reached our Island so far this year.) We had no damage other than a few downed branches and some temporary lowland flooding due to storm surge.

 Nantucket’s summer folks are a hardy bunch. In place of the traditional firework’s party, we were invited to a laptop dinner to savor the storm in our hostess’ beachfront house. Sixty guests turned up to snuggle down while the wind was howling outside. When we finally dared to leave, the wind was still blasting at 60 mph as we waded through 6” of water to reach our cars.

Hurricane Arthur gave us a soaking and a few boats washed ashore on the sandy beach... but no major damage -                                     Photos courtesy of The Inquirer & Mirror - Jim Powers photographer

 

 

FUNDRAISERS ON NANTUCKET

Summer life on Nantucket is frenzied… The social calendar is mind-boggling. Over 100 official fundraisers are gnawing at your heels to relieve you of your surplus money. You have to weasel your way through all the invitations not to end up in the poorhouse!

 

 

I went to the annual Art & Artisan Show for a fun starter. Fifty local and invited artisans from the New England area and beyond were housed under a tent. Potters, jewelers, weavers, quilters, carvers, beachcombers who build handcrafted furniture all exhit at the show. The show was sponsored by Small Friends on Nantucket, a non-profit facility that provides day care and early education for infants from 3 month through five years old. It is an unsung benefit for Nantucket’s working parents, who otherwise could not go out and earn a living.

 

  

My favorite ceramist Barbara Toole, Clay Art Studio, makes hand-thrown mugs, bowl, canisters in colorful glazes

 

Karin Sheppherd weaves traditional rag rugs out of discarded blue jeans and Nantucket red pants - Island Weaves on Nantucket

Birdbaths carved out of granite make beautiful attractions in a garden by sculptor Andrew Mintz

 

The three Bratd sisters - all were pupils of my wife, Erica Wilson, when they were little girls. Erica used to call them the Bratlings - Today they are all involved with Small Friends

 

Ginny Brown is a designer and quilter and used a Kaffe Fassett textile (on the right) and quilted it

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hope Murphy works in fused glass and created these colorful door and drawer knobs to freshen up any cabinet

 

THE LIVELIEST FUNDRAISER OF THE SEASON

The Nantucket Cottage Hospital has a lulu of an annual affair; the Boston Pops comes to town for one night, setting up a mammoth stage on Jetties Beach… The concert is a blend of patriotic music… every song that glorifies our flag and nation with a heavy dose of John Philip Sousa. After intermission, there is an abrupt change of pace…the music is replaced with a session of Abba replete with imported Swedish performers.

The band stand as seen from our center stage table

Super size screens brought the concert to the distant audience on the beach and in boats on the sea. Left: Nantucket High School student singing the Star Spangled Banner  Right: David Gregory NBC news host was the MC for the evening

Our lovely hostess, Marty With Chris and me enjoying the show

When darkness finally overtakes the breathtaking sunset, the orchestra ends with Tchaikovsky’s heroic 1812 Overture, followed by a twenty-minute display of spectacular fireworks. It is the social event of the summer. Virtually the whole town turns out for this Gala. Over 7,000 people crowd onto a small strip of beach; each paying $30 to squat on the sand with their picnic baskets and beach chairs… the hoi-polloi, pay anything from $15,000 to $100,000 for a table of ten… As an invited guest, I got to sit at a numbered table with tablecloths to eat tepid food served up by hundreds of adorable volunteers. The ‘beach-sitters’ bring their own picnic, frequently more elaborate and delicious than the catered food… Finally there is the flotilla of boats: many set out at sunset to enjoy the concert from the sea…. (For years Erica and I were a part of this floating audience). After the concert, the fleet, from dinghies, fishing boats to luxury yachts, grope their way home through shoals and jetties in pitch darkness to their moorings…. a hair-razing experience under the best of circumstances and terrifying when the fog rolls in.

 Fireworks accompanied Tchaikovsky’s heroic 1812 Overture

After the last boom of the thunderous fireworks and the concert is barely over, the throngs of people start slowly exiting. The “circus crew” is already dismantling the stage and tents that housed kitchens – bars – dressing rooms and the fifty or so porta-potties…

 

Even as the orchestra was exiting, the work-crew started to disassemble the stage

On land, thousands of pedestrians trudge home with beach chairs on their backs, tugging little wagons with the remnants of their picnic fixings and small children on their hands or riding on dad’s shoulders. Those of us lucky enough to have obtained parking permits, gingerly pick our way through the masses of pedestrians… it is all very orderly, and miraculously, without incidents or accidents.

By morning all is gone and the beach is once again left in pristine condition for the summer tourists.

 

THE COQ AU VIN BAND

I still chase my favorite “Gypsies”, the Coq Au Vin band. There is not a gypsy amongst them… All are wholesome American kids playing romantic music. This August they did a series of intimate (and sold-out!) sunset concerts to a packed appreciative audience on the spectacular rooftop of the Nantucket Whaling Museum, where they debuted some new songs and introduced their fun T-shirts! These gigs were a far cry from the usually noisy, boisterous evenings at the Pazzo restaurant where their fans congregate until one in the morning dancing on tables with yours truly leading the cheering.

 

The band on the roof-top of the Whaling Museum doing their twilight concerts

Ingrid and her friend Hebe introducing the band's new T shirts

The "fan club" touting our new purchase

Ingrid Feeney the lead singer sings in six exotic languages and has just completed her Masters in Anthropology. Every song has a history, which she interprets in a scholarly way to her appreciative audience.  

 

The band cavorting on Caleb Cressman's farm while being filmed for a Music Video

 

Caleb's farm menagerie - goats, sheep and pigs

 

Ingrid Feeney the lead singer with Lucy Van Ardsdale the base-fiddler - Joanna Hay, the violinist, taking a break in the recording studio

This was the band’s last week playing together… Ingrid went to Oregon to be with her boyfriend, who is getting a doctorate in Eco-sciences; Joanna Hay, the violinist, returned home to Louisville Kentucky to her daytime career of documentary film maker and her eagerly awaiting husband.

The Band’s popularity has spread beyond our Island; earlier this summer, a Hollywood team of cinema-photographers converged on Caleb Cressman’s farm to film a Music Video for release later this year. Caleb is the leader of the band. He is a very talented multi-faceted musician, who plays the violin and accordion and has written many of the band’s soulful melodious songs. In their final week together, the band recorded their first CD…  After their final recording session, the entire band came to my house for a hilarious farewell dinner of chili and ice cream.

 

  Hang in there - for two instalments to come!